Judicial Council
According to Law 28-11, Organic Law of the Judicial Council, the election process must be in accordance with the following:
SECTION IV
Election of members
Article 14.
Electoral Committee.
The Electoral Committee shall be composed of a Chairman and three members, appointed by the Council. The Chairman shall be a Justice of the Supreme Court of Justice. The First Member shall be a Judge of one of the Courts of Appeal or equivalent courts. The Second Member shall be a Judge of a Court of First Instance or equivalent courts. The Third Member shall be a Justice of the Peace or Judge of an equivalent court.
Paragraph I.- When the Chairman or one of the members is absent, the Board, subject to the provisions of the principal part of this Article, shall appoint a substitute.
Paragraph II.- During the period between the publication of the call for elections and the proclamation of the results, the members of the Electoral Committee may not be forcibly transferred, nor may they be removed or suspended from the offices to which they are entitled, except by reason of a criminal sentence imposing, principally or accessorily, the penalty of disqualification or suspension from public office.
Paragraph III.- The effectiveness of any change of assignment, due to causes other than those mentioned in the preceding paragraph, shall be postponed until the end of the electoral process.
Article 15.
- Decisions.
Decisions of the Election Committee shall be made by majority vote. In the event of a tie, the Chairman shall cast the deciding vote.
Paragraph: The decisions of the Electoral Committee may be appealed on reconsideration before the same and hierarchically before the Council of the Judiciary. In any case, the term shall be five days, counted from the date of notification of the decision subject to appeal.
Article 16.
Functions. The Electoral Committee directs, organizes and supervises the election process in which, simultaneously, each category of the judiciary, in an assembly of peers, shall elect the candidates of its category, in a personal and secret ballot.
Article 17.
Equivalences. For the purposes of the provisions of Article 155 of the Constitution of the Republic and Article 3 of the present law, the following criteria shall be applied for the determination of equivalents:
1) Equivalent to Ordinary Justice of the Peace:
- Special Justice of the Peace of Transit.
- Justice of the Peace for Municipal Affairs.
2) Equivalent to Judge of First Instance:
- Land Judge of Original Jurisdiction.
- Judge of the Labor Court.
- Judge of the Court for Children and Adolescents.
- Judge of Instruction.
- Sentence Execution Judge.
- Judge for the Execution of the Adolescent Person's Sanction.
3) Equivalent to Court of Appeals Judge:
- Judge of the Superior Court of Lands.
- Judge of the Labor Court.
- Judge of the Court of Children and Adolescents.
- Judge of the Superior Administrative Court.
Paragraph: The Law may establish other coincidences.
Article 18.
Convening of meetings.
The Electoral Committee shall issue a Call for Assemblies, which shall be published in a newspaper of national circulation and on the Internet portal of the Judicial Branch, in which it shall set the date of the assembly and the deadline for the registration of candidacies, which shall never exceed twenty days.
Article 20.
Submission of proposals.
The nomination proposal shall include the name of the candidate, the position he/she holds, his/her code and a document of no more than three pages in which the candidate indicates his/her institutional proposals.
Article 20.
Receipt of proposals and publication.
Nominations shall be deposited with the General Directorate of Administration and Judicial Careers, which shall process them to the Electoral Committee.
Paragraph I.-
The list of candidates and their respective proposals will be published on the Judicial Branch website.
Paragraph II.
Before publishing the list, the Electoral Committee shall verify whether the candidacies presented are not disqualified in accordance with Paragraph I of Article 155 of the Constitution of the Republic.
Article 21.
Regional voting centers.
The Electoral Committee may establish regional voting centers for the purpose of facilitating the suffrage of the greatest number of judges of the Judicial Branch.
Article 22.
Prohibitions.
It is prohibited to use work time and institutional resources to campaign in favor of an aspirant to the Judicial Branch Council.
Paragraph: The assemblies held for the election of each category shall be attended exclusively by the judges who are part of the corresponding jurisdictional level, and any interference that tends to alter the free expression of the will of the judges shall be prohibited.
